The present invention relates generally to crushing machinery and more particularly to a system for compacting a junk vehicle body into a relatively flat unitary mass for shipping and subsequent processing to recover scrap metal.
Discarded automobiles and the like are to say the least, unsightly if merely left to rust in a junkyard, and further represent a resource in their scrap metal content, which should be utilized. Many large scale auto salvage operations have expensive installations for melting down or otherwise processing such scrap metal, while other auto salvage operations may have large and expensive crushing machines for compacting a discarded vehicle body into a relatively flat mass so that numerous such compacted bodies may be stacked on a truck for shipment to a location where melting or recycling equipment is available.
Vehicle body compacting equipment is extremely large, sophisticated and expensive and in general, out of the reach of many smaller auto salvage companies. The known vehicle crushers are of a size to require an entire large tractor trailer for moving them from location to location or even larger, necessitating a fixed location installation. The prior art does not provide a small, inexpensive, relatively easily movable crushing machine.